Newspaper guild: The LA Times must not be sold to the Koch brothers and their “harsh right-wing positions”; Update: LA Dems threaten Times investors over Koch sale

posted at 2:01 pm on May 1, 2013 by Allahpundit

I tweeted this link last night and John Ziegler replied, “Isn’t this guild statement the ultimate smoking gun of liberal media bias? Didn’t do same for David Geffen’s efforts to buy LAT”. Precisely my point in yesterday’s post. If the media was as neutral as they pretend to be for professional (and political) advantage, any bid from a strong partisan, whether left or right, should cause jitters about the newsroom becoming “unbalanced.” Where’s the hand-wringing over liberal ideologues buying up media?

Here’s the Guild statement in full, via Jim Romenesko. Note that there’s no hand-wringing over traditional union concerns like the Kochs cutting wages, layoffs, reducing hours, etc. The objection is purely political, fraudulently dressed up as concern that the chastity of our impartial media might — gasp — be violated by ideology. In terms of pure contempt for the reader’s intelligence, the boldface bit here is the rhetorical equivalent of a middle finger:

Recently you’ve seen many petitions asking that the Koch brothers not be allowed to buy the Tribune Company’s newspapers. We understand why the Kochs breed this distrust. They are active political proponents of harsh right-wing positions. We’re also not certain that Tribune will listen to anything but money when the final decision is made.

What we do know is that great papers publish credible, trusted journalism online and on the printed page. Whoever comes to own these mastheads needs to understand that protecting newsrooms from ideological taint is no small thing. The future of American journalism depends on the ability to print truth, not opinion.

We call on Tribune to make a pledge that they’ll only sell to a buyer that will protect the objectivity of the news product by making a public commitment to doing so. The Newspaper Guild-CWA and the Communications Workers of America seek your support in this goal.

Yesterday I wanted the Kochs to buy the paper to spite the bien-pensants there who can’t stop getting high on the “untainted” scent of their own partisan farts. Now I want someone like Soros to buy it so that we can grind their faces in this statement when the Guild inevitably issues no objection to that sale. Actually, though, this fits with the trend I wrote about recently vis-a-vis Gosnell of the media becoming more candid about its biases over time provided that it doesn’t have to correct those biases. Conservative media watchdogs gave them a choice: Go on calling yourself objective and be objective, or go on being biased and cop to the bias. The idea was that they’d be shamed into choosing door number one. Wrong. They’ve taken door number two — occasionally with a vengeance, per the Guild’s little broadside against the Kochs. You win, wingnuts. We’re biased. Now leave us alone.

But look on the bright side. If you’re a fan of partisan conservative media like talk radio or Fox News, big media’s insistence on remaining out-and-proud left is good news for you. It’s not good for the average voter (there’s a special irony in California’s flagship newspaper riding an ideological monopoly to ruin), but big media’s loss is alternative media’s gain.

Update:I dare them to do it. Just because I want to see what the inevitable First Amendment lawsuit looks like.

Three Los Angeles City Council members — including a candidate for mayor — asked their colleagues Tuesday to consider pulling city pension money from the investment firms that own the Los Angeles Times if they sell the publication to buyers who do not support “professional and objective journalism.”…

“Frankly what I hear about the Koch brothers, if it’s true, it’s the end of journalism,’’ said [Councilman Bill] Rosendahl, a former broadcaster. “I don’t want to see Los Angeles, the second-largest city and the biggest region in the nation, not to have a quality newspaper.”…

“We cannot support the sale of the Times to entities who Times readers would view as a political transaction first and foremost, turning L.A.’s metropolitan daily into an ideological mouthpiece whose commitment to empirical journalism would be unproven at best,” Rosendahl wrote in the motion. “A newspaper isn’t just a business it’s also a civic trust.”

It’s the end of journalism if the Kochs buy a newspaper, but not if city governments start threatening media companies financially for endorsing the wrong political views?

I’ll leave you with this:

If L.A. Dems horrified by Kochs Tribune bid, but not wealthy liberal donors’ bid, maybe it’s more about self-preservation than journalism.

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Shouldn’t there be a petition somewhere that I can sign to show my support for the Koch Corp in this endeavor? Also, if they’re interested, I’ll bet they could pick up the Cleveland Plain Dealer for a song….

“Frankly what I hear about the Koch brothers, if it’s true, it’s the end of journalism,’’ said [Councilman Bill] Rosendahl, a former broadcaster. “I don’t want to see Los Angeles, the second-largest city and the biggest region in the nation, not to have a quality newspaper.”

Two things. First, journalism ended 5 years ago when the mainstream media dropped all pretenses in their covering for….errrr, coverage of Obama. Second, L.A. already doesn’t have a quality newspaper, so they don’t need to worry about that.

Yesterday I wanted the Kochs to buy the paper to spite the bien-pensants there who can’t stop getting high on the “untainted” scent of their own partisan farts.

This is bordering on “Cryptonomicon” worthy.

If the Koch’s buying a newspaper is the end of journalism then I’m all for it. The nation can respond by resurrecting something new from the ashes that doesn’t consist of liberals blowing one-another and then bragging about it on every page.

Waiting for verbalace and the gang to come here and demonstrate how the media is really a rightwing capitalistic group, blah blah and how if only progressivism had a voice in the media we would all see the light….

While the journalists threats are probably mostly bluffs, the Kochs had better have a viable game plan if they actually do this. There are all sorts of things the low-level workers can do to sabotage a business without going through with their ultimatum. Of course, the Kochs didn’t get rich by being stupid, so I’m sure they’re thinking it through.

Yep, it’s the end of the world if a “right winger” buys the paper. But the Socialists that have been running it to this point, juuust right. Stay classy there Libs. Thank you for confirming everyone’s worst thoughts about you.

I don’t think you are giving this meltdown enough credit, AP. This is nutty. As in “nuts.” They created a Koch boogeyman in their heads who is worse than any Satan they’d care to entertain. We don’t talk about “The Koch Brothers” much, but they never shut up about them over there.

And now their boogeyman, not any actual human beings, is jumping out of the closet and all their worst nightmares are coming true. This is the end of the world. The right is taking over today, and tomorrow, we’ll be under the rule of “the corporations.”

Your analysis is sane and measured, and tries to explain why Patient Mike keeps putting his arms over Patient Karen. But the answer is simpler: Mike thinks he’s a teapot, and he thinks Karen’s a cup.

If I were the Koch brothers, I’d buy the paper and gut it down to the name. I mean, I wouldn’t keep any single person currently working there. From the highest position there to the lowest of the low positions, gone.

If I were the Koch brothers, I’d buy the paper and gut it down to the name. I mean, I wouldn’t keep any single person currently working there. From the highest position there to the lowest of the low positions, gone.

Meople on May 1, 2013 at 2:18 PM

And make it an open shop — no union. Pay union scale, but no organization.

If I were the Koch brothers, I’d buy the paper and gut it down to the name. I mean, I wouldn’t keep any single person currently working there. From the highest position there to the lowest of the low positions, gone.

Well, to be fair, I’d make every employee go through the interview process again and have them justify their retention.

Buy it, walk into the newsroom and announce that the place was going to be EXACTLY 50-50 conservative-liberal by the end of the year. Anyone unwilling to play on a LEVEL playing field can leave. Most would leave, because they KNOW they don’t have the intellectual capacity for it.

I can’t figure out if they’re really this delusional or if they’re just being reactionary. If these ‘journalists’ really believe that they’re unbiased torch-bearers of truth and enlightenment, I would find that to be genuinely frightening.

Quite frankly, liberal journalism is a road to failure. Look at all those publications out there going bust. You COULD make the case that media has changed enough that the newspapers are really NEEDED anymore. But if the material published were anything WORTH reading, reported on issues which the general public were most interested in, and above all, reflected an objective report of matters-at-hand… would we not be interested in obtaining a subscription? (Newsweek anyone?)

So, if the LA Times had the journalistic integrity already, it could be that they would not need to sell their paper? (for other failed liberal enterprises, see: Air America)

Buy the paper and announce that nothing will change to mirror the owner’s viewpoint.

When the cheering stops hold a press conference and say that in the interest of fairness and equitable living standards everyone at the paper will be paid exactly the same salary, from the newly hired truck driver to the lead editor. Then watch the fireworks.

I remember this line in regards to the Oilers and the owner’s demands for a new stadium. Then they got creamed in the second half by a Buffalo team that had to resort to their back-up QB and limped over to Nashville a couple of years later.

When we had two papers you could tell one from the other by the tone of the editorials. I subscribed to both. The conservative one bought the liberal one and became way more liberal as a result.

“Frankly what I hear about the Koch brothers, if it’s true, it’s the end of journalism,’’ said [Councilman Bill] Rosendahl, a former broadcaster. “I don’t want to see Los Angeles, the second-largest city and the biggest region in the nation, not to have a quality newspaper.”…

Buy it, walk into the newsroom and announce that the place was going to be EXACTLY 50-50 conservative-liberal by the end of the year. Anyone unwilling to play on a LEVEL playing field can leave. Most would leave, because they KNOW they don’t have the intellectual capacity for it.

michaelo on May 1, 2013 at 2:23 PM

I respectfully disagree. If I were in charge of structuring the NEW paper and staff, it would be entirely conservative. From the top down. I would make it clear from the start that the paper was going to have conservative journalists, columnists, editors and conservative content.

I would advertise it and hype it as such, as the one conservative paper amongst all the rest of the liberal, wacko-leftist drivel in all the other papers around.

And let me tell you, if the Koch brothers did it this way, it would sell like hotcakes. Guaranteed.

When the cheering stops hold a press conference and say that in the interest of fairness and equitable living standards everyone at the paper will be paid exactly the same salary, from the newly hired truck driver to the lead editor. Then watch the fireworks.

If all these so-called “principled” employees of the LAT newsroom quit when the Kochs buy it, it will save them a fortune in severance packages and future unemployment taxes – not to mention the process of laying off the dead wood.

The handwriting is on the wall, though, not just for LAT (no matter who is dumb enough to buy it), but for all print newspapers. The world has passed them by, their paid readership is aging and dying off and they cannot survive.

When you see the likes of Dana Milbank begging on the street, be sure to laugh at him as you pass by.

Asked their colleagues Tuesday to consider pulling city pension money from the investment firms that own the Los Angeles Times if they sell the publication to buyers who do not support “professional and objective journalism.”

I guess the libs don’t understand that the guys at the investment firms aren’t all that motivated by city pension money. Government pensions have to be a huge headache to run, and you’re increasingly likely, especially in California, to get screwed if you’re involved in government financial stuff.

I must disagree there. I would forget about politics completely, and aim for HONEST reporting, the facts as they are. That’s what journalism is supposed to be about, the entire concept of a free press from America’s Founding.

The fact is though, if you subtract the leftist, Socialist bent from the current state of news media right now, the end result of having no bias and actually reporting the “actual” news, is inherently Conservative.

If the real news is reported, the Left loses, and loses BIG, every time.

Three Los Angeles City Council members — including a candidate for mayor — asked their colleagues Tuesday to consider pulling city pension money from the investment firms that own the Los Angeles Times if they sell the publication to buyers who do not support “professional and objective journalism.”…

Everyone ought to up in arms over this bullying tactic. It’s absolutely nauseating. First the Left threatens Chick Fil A over comments their President made, now they’re doing the same to investors who might entertain the idea of selling to libertarians. We cannot and should not stand for this garbage. The so called tolerant ones are increasingly deciding what views are allowed, and which aren’t.

The fact is though, if you subtract the leftist, Socialist bent from the current state of news media right now, the end result of having no bias and actually reporting the “actual” news, is inherently Conservative.

If the real news is reported, the Left loses, and loses BIG, every time.

Meople on May 1, 2013 at 3:14 PM

I understand your point, and totally agree. But even ‘being Conservative’ lends a bent toward a possible bias.

As a stanch Constitutional Constructionist, I want an honest media for once. Bill a revamped paper failing because of its liberalism as anything other than honest is a killer, too.

It might seem trite and concise, but if you give the people honesty they’ll favorably respond.